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Poverty Introduction
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Have you ever played Monopoly when one player owns half the properties -- all covered with hotels? You know you're in trouble when you're happy to land on "go to jail." Or when you're glad to pay "luxury tax" -- because that means you missed Boardwalk and Park Place for one more round!

The real world is much like a Monopoly game for billions of people. Forbes magazine reported recently that the world now has 388 billionaires (up 30 from last year). This elite group controls more wealth than the bottom 45 percent of the world's population combined -- some 2.5 billion people!

Clearly, the global gap between the rich and the poor has become a global gulf. The World Health Report 1995 says that more than one fifth of the world's 5.6 billion people live in extreme poverty.

In the United States, the wealthiest 1 percent of the population has more wealth than the bottom 90 percent. Time magazine says our national assets have not been so unevenly distributed since 1929 -- just before the stock market crash. At the same time, Congress is snipping away at what once was considered a "safety net" for America's poor.

Dr. David Hilfiker, a Christian physician who works with the poor in Washington, D.C., observes, "Our society is, I believe, beginning to see the poor as less than human … and to hate them. We are beginning to … see in them the source of our troubles."

With all this, is there any hope for people of faith? There was in ancient Israel, an elaborate system of caring for the poor and needy:

Food distribution programs. Every three years, the community restocked the "food pantry" for use by resident aliens, orphans and widows (Deut. 14:28-29). And landowners were to go through their fields only once during the harvest. Everything missed was to be available for the poor to glean (Lev. 19:10).

Interest free, forgivable loans. It was illegal to charge interest to another Israelite. And while it was expected that loans would be repaid, if for some reason they could not be, the lender was to forgive the loan in the sabbatical year (Deut. 15:1-11).

Employment programs/spin-off ventures. If an individual could not meet a financial obligation, a person of means was to pay off the poor person's creditors in exchange for a promise to work for six years. At the end of the six years, the employer was to release the individual and provide a liberal portion of animals and grain so they could get a new start (Deut. l5:13-14).

Redistribution of capital. Every fifty years -- the year of Jubilee -- property was to revert to its original owner (Lev.25:8-24). The Jubilee recognized that, over time, inequities occur -- perhaps due to health problems or crop failures, perhaps even due to poor judgment or mismanagement. But every fifty years was an opportunity for a fresh start. It was as if the Monopoly game would start over every hour before economic disparities become too great.

The early church had many similar practices: food distributions for widows (Acts 6:1-6); special offerings for those affected by famine and persecution (Rom. 15:25-28); and property sales with redistribution of resources to any who had need (Acts 2:45, 4:34).

But what about us today? What is our responsibility for the poor and needy among us? Sometimes it feels like we struggle hard enough just to make ends meet for ourselves. What can we do, given the enormity of the global problem of poverty? We're not rich. Rich people are those who have more than we do!

Can't the poor be more responsible for themselves? When we help poor people, don't we encourage dependency? Why don't the poor get better jobs?

While there are poor persons -- like rich persons -- who take advantage of "the system," many persons are genuinely trapped in the emerging global economic order. Nearly one in five Americans who work full-time live below the federal poverty level. For reasons I do not fully understand, our free market system functions best with a 6.2 percent unemployment rate. So there is a built-in bias that some persons won't have jobs.

The issue of wealth and poverty is one of the most important issues facing the church in North America today. In many ways, it is a test of the spiritual vitality in the church. Themes woven through the biblical texts are especially helpful reminders for the church at a time when society would abandon the poor.

1. God can be trusted to meet our needs. Anxiety inevitably leads to accumulation. One of my college professors grew up in a home with lots of children and too few pairs of socks. As an adult, he has an irrational fear of running out of socks. So he keeps at least 50 pairs stuffed in his dresser.

Our anxious attempts to become secure by accumulating wealth are one cause of the disparity between rich and poor. Generally, accumulating and sharing mix as well as oil and water.

Jesus promises his followers that God is trustworthy to care for their needs (Matt. 6:25-34). Jesus praised the widow who gave her last two coins (Luke 21:1-4). It was an exemplary act of trust in God.

Jesus taught that when we spend our lives striving after material possessions, we are no different than those who don't claim to know or trust God (Matt. 6:32). Precisely because accumulation of material goods is not to be our primary concern, we are free to seek first the kingdom of God.

When do all our efforts to meet the mortgage payment, pay the bills and put away a little for college, retirement and a rainy day, amount to striving and when are they simply good stewardship? When do we cross the line between trusting in our treasures and trusting in God?

There are, of course, no bright lines. But we would do well to begin by acknowledging just how powerful is the temptation in our North American culture to trust in mammon. Gordon Cosby, pastor of Church of the Savior, says "money is the most important symbol of security for us … trusting in God is not possible if we aren't free at the point of money."

So here's the basic question: Does our level of financial and material resources free or us to follow God's call in our lives, or hinder us from following? That question may be answered differently by an entrepreneur whose ministry is to create meaningful jobs for others, than by a schoolteacher.

Trusting God to care for our needs is the first step toward being free to care about the needs of others.

2. God cares for the poor. A mother was once asked which of her children she loved most. "The one who is sick or facing hardship at the time," she responded. The Bible is clear that God, too, identifies with those who are most vulnerable.

The writer of Proverbs says, "Those who oppress the poor insult their Maker, but those who are kind to the needy honor God" (Proverbs 14:31).

David writes, "I know that the Lord maintains the cause of the needy, and executes justice for the poor" (Psalm 140:12).

The implication of Matthew 25 -- the text that says we treat Christ like we treat the least of these -- is that God chooses to dwell among the most weak and vulnerable persons in society. We meet God when we serve the poor. This gives reason to befriend the poor, not to despise or fear them.

3. God calls the church to be a community, for richer, for poorer. Even when -- especially when -- society would turn its back on the poor, the church must not forget the covenant that binds us together in God's sight. Just as with our marriage vows, we are connected for richer, for poorer. We dare not abandon one another when times get tough.

It is rare in a game of Monopoly for everyone to do well or everyone to do poorly at the same time. The Bible also assumes that there will simultaneously be those with plenty and those in need. It is this very situation that God uses to meet human needs. When Paul appealed to the Corinthian church to share in the needs of the church at Jerusalem, he reminded them that their time of need may come. "It is a question of a fair balance between your present abundance and their need, so that their abundance may be for your need" (2 Cor. 8:13-14). Paul assumes that those with plenty and those in need will some day reverse roles.

We would do well to acknowledge our tendency to distance ourselves from the poor. Too often, the more we have the more we isolate and insulate ourselves from the poor. Partly to protect what we have, partly because we don't like to be reminded of the needs of others. The face of poverty in a far off land is much less threatening than the face of poverty close at hand. Sending a one-time gift to Somalia or Rwanda is much simpler than developing a relationship with a poor person we see every day.

The church alone cannot adequately respond to the systemic nature of poverty. We would do well to call upon our government to help create an economic environment that provides opportunities to earn a living wage and a safety net to protect the most vulnerable. But for that call to have integrity, it must be rooted in our life and practice as a church.